Data Cleansing with AI/ML

We all know about the new-age data analytics organisations the core function of which is to thoroughly analyse different types of data flowing in from a variety of sources. But what we don’t know is that firms end up spending only about 20% of their total work time in data analysis. What do they do the remaining 80% of the time? Well, they involuntarily spend it on cleaning all the “dirty data” and prepping it up for deep analysis.

Now practices like these inevitably lower man productivity in any company, not to mention increase costs of labour and result in time wastage too. This is why a large number of business enterprises, especially the data analytic firms, are now considering better and more efficient options for data cleansing, namely AI or ML-driven data-cleaning techniques.

What Exactly is Data Cleansing?

Before we proceed any further, let’s clarify this first. The data recorded and stored in an organisation is usually never error-free. It’s always cluttered and filled with anomalies. The reason: data entries are done by humans in these enterprises and humans are bound to make errors.

However, the problem arises and comes to the fore when these large amounts of discrepancy-laden data start seeping down to the basic level, affecting the entire data analysis process. As a result, analysts need to spend huge amounts of time, effort, and money to clean up all this “bad data” before they can get on to analysing it for application in specific streams.

How Can ML and AI Data Cleanser Help?

AI stands for Artificial Intelligence and its subset Machine Learning (ML) both have crept into various business industries rather rapidly. Their potential scope in effectively carrying out data-cleaning processes in organisations is now gradually being explored.

Now, data cleaning would require two important steps:

• Identifying errors and inaccuracies in data
• Fixing data discrepancies for better analysis

If machine algorithms can be trained to carry out these two steps efficiently, it’s a win-win situation for data enterprises because they can save up huge bucks and manpower invested into these tasks.

The AI/ML-driven software can be used to first identify the exact error and the various multiple sources where it exists. The machine algorithm then needs to work on replacing the inaccurate data values with correct and updated data, while also ensuring consistency in pattern across all the various sources of data present.

Besides this, the machines would also need to be trained to auto-detect and auto-update data as and when needed to ensure that there is no bad data existing in the system at any point in time and that your customers always have access to refreshed or updated data.

To Sum Up

The very reason for the existence of bad data is human error, which is a natural phenomenon considering that human mind isn’t perfect. It’s only a machine that can be nearly perfect in whatever it does (depending on how well it’s been trained). If data cleaning with AI is implemented right, it can help solve a huge data problem.

Choosing a Logistic Service Provider: Things to Consider

Increasing competition and growing expectations on efficiency, speed, and cost-effectiveness have given birth to the concept of a logistics service provider. Today, multiple companies engage the services of a third-party logistic company(3PL) which can take care of possibly all the various functions involved in the supply chain –from shipping and warehouse stocking to inventory management and cargo, these service providers handle it all.

However, choosing a reliable logistic service provider is of utmost importance here. For, the repute and success rate of your brand depends to a large extent on how reliable the logistic service provider is in the performance of its role. To simplify things for you, we guide you here on how to choose one for your business.

Tips on Choosing a Logistics Service Provider

1. Gauge their abilities:

Agreed, a logistic company has a specific role to follow and certain specific goals to meet. But you still need to carefully assess that the abilities they possess are sufficient to meet both your short-term and long-term goals. Having said that, you must be able to figure out whether a logistic company promises to deliver all that you ask for without having any specific set of competencies.

2. Check for their promptness in service:

Efficient customer service is the next criteria by which you can test an ideal service provider. And how to test that? Speak to the old or existing customers of the logistic company and get reviews about their service – how prompt and responsive are they to customer problems and their eagerness to contribute to problem solving.

3. Look for one with a good safety record:

The safety of your goods being carried is of prime importance. These goods belong to the customers and eventually need to reach them safe and sound. It’s therefore important to choose a carrier that can prove an impressive safety record.

4. Partner with someone who’s stable:

Hiring the services of an efficient logistics service provider for your business is an investment in itself. As such, you need to be doubly sure about whom you’re partnering with. Try and settle for a company which has a strong stability record in the past and doesn’t bend in too easily whenever problems strike.

5. Compare pricing:

In the face of strong competition among similar players, logistic companies too are focusing on bringing their service costs down so as to expand their business. The same should work in your favour too because you’re going to pay the service provider in the end. Do your homework well and look up a few choices, asking to give their quote before zeroing in one.

To Sum Up

To provide ease of convenience and better and efficient service to the customer, the need for logistic service providers can be strongly felt by most businesses today, big or small. However, it’s also important to choose the right service because it puts your brand credibility at stake too in the long run.

Why Should You Invest in Software Testing?

IT companies are forever busy in the race of developing new and unheard-of software. This is primarily owing to the tough competitive market that keeps propelling the development of new software technologies. And, just developing isn’t enough. They even need to carefully time the software release way ahead of competition. In all this rush-rush, it’s fairly easy to miss out on one very important step that falls between software development and release – testing!

What is Software Testing?

In very simple words, testing software means evaluating it thoroughly once it has completed its development cycle to check for any potential missed gaps between what was expected of the software and what has been finally delivered.

Testing the software before formally launching or releasing it in the market is a good idea to know of any discrepancies or even errors made during its development. This allows the organisation to make necessary amends before its release.

This and many more such advantages are on offer by including a simple step in the process of software development – software testing. Let’s look at more such benefits ahead in this post.

Why it’s Worth Investing in a Software Testing Process

Here are some of the most noteworthy reasons why:

1. You end up saving more:

If you’ve been pulling yourself back from the process in fear of expending more money, it’s time to redo the math. Launching new software in the market always involves the implicit risk of customer approval and acceptance. A lot is at stake besides your money, the most important being your repute.

If you end up releasing a flawed product, it can cost you your market image and turn away potential and even existing customers. On the contrary, testing beforehand can help detect and resolve all bugs in time, allowing you to save time and money both, which might prove difficult and expensive both at later stages.

2. You get to enjoy amazing UX:

What’s the USP of your product launch? The User Experience (UX) it promises to offer to its audience – it’s the key to make any product a success or failure. A software product which has been tested for accuracy and is devoid of any glitches is bound to lend an amazing UX to the customer, and satisfied customers mean more profit and growth for your company.

3. It results in higher productivity too:

This is obvious, right? You first spend a certain amount of time and money in developing a software product and after launch (without testing), you discover bugs and flaws. You literally end up spending an equal (or even higher) amount of time, effort, and money all into resolving those issues.

Now, this isn’t very good news for either the company in question (in terms of resource management), nor for the client (in case they’ve outsourced software development). Instead, waiting a while to test the product before launch can make work faster and more efficient too.

Think no more – investing in a software testing cycle today is only going to reap you profits tomorrow.

3 Creative Themes for Your Little Daughter’s Bedroom

Little did you realise when and how soon your tiny bundle of joy has grown into a beautiful little girl. And she sure is growing by the hour, day, month, and year. Each time you celebrate her birthday, a gentle reminder strikes you that she’s growing up and older. Her needs, tastes, and preferences are all changing rapidly, and it’s important to keep pace with them.

So where do we begin? Let’s start with the place where she feels comfortable the most; enjoys the most. Her own little bedroom! You may have painted it all pink upon her arrival into your life. But now as she’s fast-growing into a gorgeous little girl before your eyes, you may want to change the tone of her room a bit.

3 Creative Kids’ Room Ideas that are a Must Try

An important thing to note here is that room interiors cost money and while you may be thinking of your little girl’s room idea for a makeover, you may not be touching it anytime sooner. So you want a theme design that can grow with your daughter and stay age-appropriate with her even as she reaches teenage. Here are some creative ideas on a budget:

1. Play with shapes:

Your little daughter is perhaps at the age where she loves shapes, numbers, and everything to do with patterns and designs. Introduce a playful world of geometry around her in the kids’ bedroom so that she gets a feel of kindergarten learning.

Think of a headboard in the shape of a house complete with a bright-coloured square and a triangle sitting on the top. Lay a hopscotch mat on the floor for her to play on alone or with friends.

2. Introduce a hobby:

This is the age when your little one needs guidance from you on pursuing some interest which would soon turn into her all-time favourite. What better way than to bring it up via her own room? You want her to learn dance?Ballet, for instance. Get large posters of ballet dance poses on the walls, or soften the hues on the walls and tiles to match with the gentleness of the dance form.

Or, if you want her to pursue art/craft, stick around crafty stuff; make it all colourful and fun.Sit with her in the room and encourage her to try out newer stuff to add to the existing collection of decorating ideas.

3. Innovate bunks:

Bunk beds are a great idea to already create shared space for the second one or make room for your daughter’s ‘friend sleepover’ wish as she grows older. Create a three-sided closed look to give the feel of a closed cabinet – instead of the all-open sided ones – your daughter’s very own cosy space she’d need later.

Conclusion

Decorating your kids’ room is always a challenge; you never know how their taste changes as they grow older. But it’s worth taking a risk for the future because their present joy is invaluable.

Home Business Startups – Achieve Financial Independence From The Comfort Of Home

The concept of home business is fast picking up as people begin to realise the amazing benefits of working from the comfort of their homes and still make decent earning for themselves! Besides, the growing trend of nuclear families and added responsibility of managing the household along with working has further propelled the idea of small investment business from home.

Here are some of the top benefits of starting your business setup at home, if you haven’t already.

How Home Business Start Ups Can Prove Beneficial To You

1. You gain a sense of financial independence

Working for your own gain is always different from working for or under others. While it used to be difficult earlier to possibly think of making this a reality, it isn’t that hard anymore. Lots of men, and even women, are looking for newer and lucrative ways of starting home businesses with an intent to enjoy that indisputable feeling of financial independence.

2. You get to enjoy the comfort of your own house

This has to be the best advantage of all. Today people are juggling multiple responsibilities to be able to somehow strike a balance between their work life and home life. The added pressure does create a lot of undue stress as well, which can take the shape of manifold problems later on.

With running your own business at home, you’re your own boss. You can plan things better to suit your convenience and also skip the long and unnecessary commuting hours to work. Needless to say, those hours can be put to more productive use at home to make higher business gains.

3. You’re free to scale up or down as the need arises

You are the best judge of the success scale of your business and you should be able to upsize or downsize it as and when you feel right. This may not always be possible with operating your business in a fixed rented space. Expansion may be a challenge due to space constraints and downscaling too may be difficult, considering that you’ve a signed lease contract.

To avoid any such inconvenience, it’s best to consider setting up a business in your own home space where you have the freedom to hire more or less people depending on how well your business is doing.

4. You get tax benefits too

Your home business may even qualify for a deduction in their home costs, such as mortgage interest, property tax, utilities, or repairs and maintenance against the income earned from your business. Of course, this is only possible when you can prove that your home is your primary place of business. Also, only the home expenses directly related to your business can be deducted. It’s still worth it!

Conclusion

Home businesses surely lend a breather from the otherwise stressful work schedules of going out and lending your services. Besides, who knows you may even end up earning higher from your small business ideas than your last/current job.

Why Travelling Makes Us More Creative

Travelling is always fun. In fact, the very idea of stepping out of home for a few days on a vacation is enough to bring joy to the heart and energise you with new-found bliss. This is the power a simple word travel holds. But did you know that it has the potential to increase your creative juices too?

Sounds a bit out of the ordinary? Hey! but it’s true. And it’s not we saying it alone; substantial research has been done on the matter to prove that travelling can make a person more creative. Here we explore the creative benefits of travelling.

How Travelling Helps Increase Creativity

There are various ways how but the most important fact that helps is the very experience of creating a physical distance between the current place you’re in and yourself. Often times, sitting at the same place all day (as in the case of homemakers) and carrying out the same monotonous chores all along can make the mind dull and inactive. The result: we start feeling bored, angry, negative, and even depressed.

At such a time, the best thing possible that can come to our rescue is a short break or holiday away from home. This can bring in a whole new and fresh approach to doing the same things or carrying out the same routine chores. This is because after a vacation, the mind gets freshened up and gains strength to look at things from a happier perspective than keep brooding over them.

This is how innovation and creativity set in to deal with things around us. Let’s understand a bit more the relationship between travel and being creative:

• You get innovative at finding better solutions to the same old problems. When you go to new places and meet new people, make new friends, you get a better insight into each individual’s set of problems. This lends a whole new perspective to looking at life which is currently restricted to only focusing on ourselves. We get better ideas at dealing with our own problems from the point of view of how others are possibly handling them.
• You become more self-confident going to different places, especially if you’re travelling all by yourself. It gives you the strength to handle different situations on your own and you get creative at finding better ways of doing things your way. When you’re filled with self-confidence, it automatically gives a kick to the way you do things in your day-to-day life.
• Travel gives you a peek into new things around you. This immediately provides new ideas to the mind.You become more open-minded and adaptive to others’ beliefs and lifestyles as you see them around you and somewhere you try and incorporate the same in your life too; perhaps alter them more creatively to suit your specific situation.

Summing Up

Creativity is essential to feeling good about oneself and having confidence in one’s abilities. It doesn’t happen sitting in one corner of the earth. Travel bolsters this skill instantly.

6 Reasons to Choose Disposable Cups & Plates for Events

Planning an event can be quite cumbersome; there’s so much to arrange for your guests to make them comfortable. And then there’s always the additional pressure of making an impression in terms of the décor and the way the overall event turns out. All this is bound to involve a huge sum, of course, but with event costs spiraling up of late, people are now resorting to more affordable events that exude the same elegance nonetheless.

One of the things where it’s possible to scale back a little is dishware used at events. Renting out fancy crockery and cutlery to make an impression the guests can be quite costly indeed. Instead, perhaps the best option to resort to is disposable flatware. Now, we aren’t really referring to the paper cups and plates that you may be using for home parties or picnics (because that could raise eyebrows at the mention of disposable paper plates for big events like wedding or receptions).

The whole arena of disposable tableware has immensely evolved over the years, from where it used to be restricted to plain white and flimsy cups and plates. Today the variety to look out and opt for is enormous – all at affordable prices to suit every budget and event need, and absolutely sophisticated-looking at the same time too.

Here we present a range of benefits that you can derive from choosing disposable dishes at a large event, which you may have chosen to overlook for some reason.

Top 6 Benefits to Go For Disposable Cups and Plates at Events

1. Extremely hygienic:

Now that’s the first concern most of your guests (if not all) would have while using the dishes at your party. Lot of people feel uncomfortable using dishes at large events on the premise that the same dishes would have been used by a million others either at the same or a different event.

But disposable dishware can put that apprehension to rest. These dishes are used by only one person at a time and thrown away immediately after use. Therefore, they guarantee improved levels of hygiene over other crockery.

2. Highly affordable:

Hosting a large event is anyway a very pricey affair. And when it comes to saving costs somewhere, you’d like to give your tableware a thought because here you can choose to opt for disposables that are easy on the pocket.

You neither want to purchase dishes for a single event nor rent them out because it’s quite expensive to do so. You can actually buy paper cups in bulk at much lesser price – you may even bargain for special discounts at certain wholesale stores.

3. Easy availability in unlimited numbers:

When throwing large events for a huge gathering, you’d be expecting a large quantity of dishware at the disposal of your guests. It’s hard to keep a strict check on the number of dishes being used for every single guest (some may use more than once too). In this case, renting out dishware can be risky because you might end up falling short of dishes (if you didn’t do the count right or more guests turned up than expected). Go for disposable paper plates, which you can always purchase a few extra (as they’re cost-effective) and even return to the store for a refund if they remain unused.

4. Uniform look:

This is a very important point to consider when choosing dishware for your event. All your tableware that includes meal plates, dessert plates, cups, glasses, spoons, forks, and knives should ideally be consistent in design, color and pattern. Only then they look gorgeous placed neatly on the table. Now with rented dishware this could be a problem sometimes, especially if you need to get a few extra at the last moment to accommodate more guests.

Disposable dishware can be purchased extra even in the beginning at a reasonable price and from a wholesale store where you’d get unlimited stocks in the same design and pattern. Therefore, you needn’t worry about they not being uniform for all the guests.

5. Safe for kids:

Your event would have a satisfactory gathering of younger guests as well, i.e., kids of all age groups. It’s good to be prepared in advance for hosting these special invitees as well. Your regular dishware – china crockery or sharp-edged steel forksmay not be suitable for very young children who can be at risk of harming either themselves or damaging the dishes if left unattended.

This could mean a loss to you if the rented dishes get broken accidentally or if the child gets harmed again unknowingly. Disposable dishes that way are much safer to handle and use for all age groups – especially the children and the elderly. They are unbreakable and you wouldn’t even have to worry about running out of dishes because kids generally tend to waste more sometimes simply out of fun.

6. Appealing to taste:

Your dishware shouldn’t just be utile; it should even look attractive and appealing laiddown at the table. Your guests should feel prompted to pick it up and start using it. A lot of people choose not to go for disposables considering that they aren’t very tasteful, especially for special events like weddings, receptions, and the like.

Quite on the contrary, disposable dishware has undergone enormous change since its first inception. We’ve been so used to buying and using white paper cups and plates that we aren’t able to think beyond. Well, the good news is that you just need to step into a store and ask – they’ll show you a plethora of options that are enough to get confused.

There’s even a disposable variety that looks so authentic that neither you nor your guests would be able to discern the difference. Some of them even look closely similar to china dishes!

To Conclude

Events are a lot of work anyway. Don’t let the worry of renting dishware bog you down. Choose disposables and save effort and money to clean up after.

How Your Age Affects Your Appetite

You may have been eating three wholesome meals with some snacks every few hours when you were a child or teen. What changed suddenly that now you don’t feel hungry enough to even take two meals a day, let alone in-between munching? We often fail to realise but our appetite, i.e., our desire to eat undergoes change, precisely 7 times in our entire life.

Here we shed light on these 7 stages to answer the common question: Does appetite increase with age? Yes! It does. Let's see how:

Phase 1: Age 0 – 10 years

This is the most beautiful phase of life called childhood and while a child’s body is growing rapidly and needs nutritious food, it’s also important to teach kids an ideal portion control at this stage. If children are forced to finish their plate clean before getting up from the table, they may never be able to learn to “listen to their bodies” and determine when and how much they feel hungry. This might even extend to adulthood and cause problems of overeating.

Phase 2: Age 10 – 20 years

This is teenage time and our appetite is largely driven by changing hormones. It’s a very crucial time too because at this stage you get to learn how nutrition affects aging.What you eat now and how much can have a direct impact on your health in later years.

Phase 3: Age 20 – 30 years

This stage is generally accompanied with weight gain because life gets busier and even stressful. You tend to move out of home for studies or job, get married, or have kids. The body may start indicating in the form of appetite signals when energy is low. Often we tend to overeat at this time too, again because of stress, and the body’s signals to prevent overeating may not be that strong either.

Phase 4: Age 30 – 40 years

Here too, the stress of everyday life starts impacting the appetite. Research shows that the sudden loss of appetite causes in 80% people are daily stress and busy work schedules.

Phase 5: Age 40 – 50 years

Whatever you eat in the earlier phases may start showing up now in the form of higher cholesterol, hypertension, or diabetes. And changes in dietary patterns in turn start affecting appetite. That brings us to the question – does your appetite decrease as you lose weight? You may lose weight because of the new diet plan you follow but with a bit of exercise and physical activity, you can restore your appetite.

Phase 6: Age 50 – 60 years

Does your stomach shrink as you get older? No, but your appetite starts slowly diminishing because of loss of muscle mass, low physical activity, and even menopause in women.

Phase 7: Age 70 and above

The primary cause for loss of appetite in the elderly is their unwillingness to eat alone, dental problems, digestion issues, or lack of smell and taste.

It’s therefore important to listen to our body’s appetite signals in order to welcome a healthy future.